Get Guardian on GoogleThe Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, said the National Assembly will transmit the State Police (Constitution Alteration) Bill, 2026, to President Bola Tinubu for assent this week.
At least 32 State Houses of Assembly have approved it, he said, which means the threshold under Section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) has been crossed.
“We are now under obligation to transmit the bill to the President for assent,” he said.
Bamidele spoke on Friday night while receiving “The Sun Senator of the Year” award from the Founder of The Sun Publishing Limited and Chairman of the South East Development Commission, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
He said the long-debated idea has moved “from rhetoric to reality.” Four more State Houses of Assembly are expected to submit their reports on or before 17 November, when the National Assembly reconvenes, and he called the coming week “decisive and defining.”
But he left no room for delay. “Whether the remaining states turn in their reports or not, we must move forward and fulfil the aspirations of our people,” he said.
The bill proposes a Federal Police Service and State Police Services. Bamidele moved to calm the fears of critics, insisting it is not designed to create ethnic or state armies.
It is about state-led, community-anchored policing within clear constitutional safeguards, he said.
He then turned his fire on social media. “We have seen characters assassinated. We have seen public institutions blackmailed. We have watched people deliberately distort facts,” he said, adding that he has been a victim himself.
He asked whether such a space should be left unregulated, and challenged the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria, Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, Nigerian Guild of Editors and Nigeria Union of Journalists to “honestly answer” the question. If they do not, he warned, “we must all brace up for the consequences of our inability to act at the time that matters most.”
Bamidele also defended the record of the Senate. He said the National Assembly should be judged by the impact of its laws on citizens, not by the number of bills it passes.
He pointed to the Student Loan (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2024, saying over ₦204 billion has been disbursed through NELFUND to applicants in 89 colleges, 108 polytechnics and 126 universities, reducing dropouts in tertiary institutions.
He also listed the National Social Investment Programmes Act, 2023, the Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act, 2024, the Tax Reform Acts, 2025, the Investments and Securities Act, 2025, the Electoral Act, 2026 and the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act, 2024, saying they have strengthened public finance and deepened electoral credibility.
He dedicated the award to God, President Tinubu, the 108 other senators and his constituents, describing it as a validation of collective responsibility, not a personal trophy.
Several senators, governors and political associates attended the event, including former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba, and Senators Gbenga Daniel, Adetokunbo Abiru, Patrick Ndubueze and Francis Onyewuchi.
